Posted By Lindsay Jones On July 24, 2008 @ 8:24 pm In General Broncos | No Comments

Rod Smith and Keith Burns arrived here in Denver at the same time, showing up for rookie orientation in 1994, both just hoping to somehow find their way onto the team that fall. Neither arrived with much fanfare – Burns, a linebacker, was drafted in the seventh round, and Smith wasn’t drafted at all and had signed with the team has a free agent.

“He was skinny, narrow,” Burns recalled about his first impression of Smith. “I called him Raj, from What’s Happening, because he had his glasses on.”

It didn’t take long for the pair to bond, over similar birthdays (Rod on May 15, Keith of May 16) and the common goal of just wanting to play.

“He knew he was willing to do anything and everything he had to do to make the team,” Burns said. “It was a pact we made during our rookie orientation, that we were here for work. It was good to meet new guys, new friends, but when we leave here you never know what’s going to happen.”

What happened for Smith and Burns was a friendship that has now lasted 14 years. On Thursday, Smith sought out Burns during his retirement speech in a Dove Valley conference room. It was just a couple of minutes into Smith’s 20-minute speech, and seeing Burns sitting off to one side, leaning against a wall, was enough to make Smith break down for the first time.

“It was hard, it was hard to make it. But with a guy like Keith by my side …” then Smith trailed off, reaching into his pocket for a handkerchief.

Burns played in 166 games for the Broncos and retired from playing in 2006. He’s starting his second season as an assistant special teams coach. He’s confident Smith would succeed as a coach, too, if Smith ever wants to try it.

“Without a doubt he can coach, I mean, he did when he was playing,” Burns said. “Coaching is something he can do without a problem, but that is all about timing too. It’s something you’ve got to really want to do, because you’ve got to be all the way in or all the way out.”

Here’s more of what others are saying about Smith and his retirement:

JOHN ELWAY: “He was not only a great player, but a great teammate. He was a guy that was great for the city, great for the organization and a gut that worked his tail off. I mean, the guy came in as a free agent. It shows you what he’s all about. He was not only a great football player, but a class act.”

ELWAY on Smith’s decision to retire: “I’m happy for Rod. We all want to play forever, but that day always comes when you can’t.”

JAKE PLUMMER on one of his favorite Smith memories: “Probably one of the most impressive things I’ve ever seen him do was, in my first year there, I had just gotten hurt and we didn’t have a back up for a couple of days. So they had him take 7-on-7. I think he was 6-for-6. And it wasn’t like he was dumping to the back or hitting the checkdown. He was throwing a skinny route, dead on. He’d throw a go-route, he threw an out-route. I was thinking, ‘Good God, he’d be good enough to take my job if he spent a year working on it.’ It was sick.”

PLUMMER on Smith: “Why I felt so good around him is physically he didn’t look like anything. He’d walk kind of sideways. He sometimes had this high-type voice. I mean he didn’t look like a professional receiver when you put him next to Terrell Owens. But the things he didn’t do well he worked on. It’s hard to pick between them but Rod and Larry Centers had the two best sets of hands I’ve ever seen.’’

Former GM Todd Sundquist, who was part of the scouting department that signed Smith: “He was a technician as a route runner. He had a tremendous ability to control his body in and out of a break. And I thought he had a tremendous feel for the openings in the defense. In the Jake years he appeared to maximize his ability to adjust his routes on the move and find the seams in the defense. And the good thing about that was Jake was on the move himself.’’

Team owner PAT BOWLEN: “You are the greatest player next to John [Elway] to play for me. And if ever get anybody like you are like John again, I am very fortunate.”

BOWLEN on Smith’s future: “I hope there is a way we can keep you involved in this organization. That is something that I am a very strong proponent of. I want you to stick around Denver, and hopefully, Mike and myself will be able to find something for you to do because you are going to be very productive. That would be a big deal for us.”

Coach MIKE SHANAHAN: “Rod is the only person I’ve been around on a consistent basis, day in, day out, that never cared about his stats. All Rod Smith talked about was winning. When you have a guy that talks about winning consistently, regardless of any number of catchers or any honors, anyone who is able to influence the locker room like he has, then you have a chance to do something special.”

SHANAHAN: “I love you. You have meant so much to us, to me, and I’ll tell you what, I’ll always have your back.”